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RickB- Human, Artist, Fool.

Ynys Mon, UK.

The blog is called ten percent because of what Kurt Vonnegut wrote when remembering Susan Sontag - She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.-

And I'm writing it because I need the therapy and I lust for world domination.

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The Fruits Of Privatisation

10 April, 2009 — RickB

For over two decades the British Dental Association and successive governments have slowly, in all but name, privatised dental care. They may have disagreements but neither truly support NHS dentistry, patients or dentists who want to work in the NHS. As if British teeth were not already enough of a joke.

Increasing numbers of young children, particularly from poor areas, are being taken into hospital to have rotten teeth removed, according to research by academics published today.

Experts are concerned by the steady increase in the figures – a 66% rise in extractions for caries over the nine years – and point out that in most cases, the child would have been subjected to a general anaesthetic, which is at best unpleasant and at worst can be life-threatening. The peak age for extractions owing to rotten teeth was five.

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4 Responses to “The Fruits Of Privatisation”

As you point out, NHS dentistry is finished. If a child is not registered with a dentist then they can see a hospital dentist, but there is a wait of at least 6 months. If they see an emergency dentist (one of those that were originally designed for out of hours care, not for out of favour patients) then the care available doesn’t include fillings, only extractions and temporary fillings – permanency is not in their remit. The Guardian report does not mention either local hospital or emergency dentist figures so the actual figure is likely to be much worse. Also, on an un-empirical note, about half of my children’s friends have had teeth extracted, but not one of them had them extracted under a general anaesthetic – that is a bit of a red herring methinks.

Thanks for the news from the front lines. Yes I would guess this bad but not as bad if they looked at the entire provision on the NHS. Every so often there is a report as if millions of us don’t know we have no proper dental care, yet the govt and BDA pretend it’s all such a big surprise. The gap between reality and the mediated version (created by corporations) of the country grows ever wider.